


When the Thrill is Gone

by AmazingGraceless



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Minor newtina mention, Restlessness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:40:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28051068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmazingGraceless/pseuds/AmazingGraceless
Summary: What does Newt do when his dreams come true?
Relationships: Tina Goldstein/Newt Scamander
Kudos: 1





	When the Thrill is Gone

**Author's Note:**

> Mentions of expulsion. Named after the Eagles song. The prompt was to write someone achieving their dreams.

Newt Scamander had done it. Ever since he had first learned about magical creatures in his first-year Defense Against the Dark Arts class, he had dreamed of creating a textbook to inform the future generations about the truth of the creatures that lurked between the faded ink and ghastly illustrations within their textbooks.

He remembered when he had looked in that book right before Professor Dumbledore had walked in the classroom, how he couldn't help but wonder what the monsters felt, what their side of the story was. He remembered as the brief introductory lesson went on about the dangers of kelpies and their infamous siren-like allure, especially to young children, how it blatantly wasn't true. Newt himself had once fallen in a kelpie's river as a small child and was not attacked by one.

His father considered it a miracle, and his older brother scolded him in his carelessness for getting so close to such dangerous waters, flesh-eating horse or no. But his mother, Rhiannon Scamander, she just regarded him with her warm, knowing smile and would later tell him that it was his natural affinity for animals— perhaps the Emerys charm, as she would refer to her ancestors' gift— and his own shy nature that had gotten him out of otherwise certain death. Newt always believed also that perhaps the kelpies were less violent than older witches and wizards assumed, given that they always went charging into everything, if his father and Theseus were any indication.

But in his first Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Newt had raised his hand impatiently, and when called upon insisted that the animals couldn't be purely bad— they were just animals, magical or not, and most likely just wanted to be left alone, or they had not learned how to interact with them properly.

Most of his classmates stared at him with mixed disgust, bemusement, and contempt for the boy who for some reason refused to accept what they had all come to understand. Leta Lestrange, the little Slytherin girl he had met in the train when Theseus went on to sit with his friends, had regarded him with wonder and something he would later realize was hope. He expected fully to be scolded by his professor for such a different idea.

But Dumbledore's blue eyes twinkled.

"Perhaps, an interesting idea, Mr. Scamander," he said as he approached the front row, where Newt and Leta sat. "Unfortunately, we haven't had many witches or wizards brave enough to find out for themselves. Information is rather scarce about the magical creatures that we live with— some experts speculate that we may not even know all of the fantastic beasts we share this world with."

"Then I'll go out there and find them," Newt had said, at the age of eleven.

Dumbledore smiled— it was well-meaning, it was the kind of smile that said that he believed in the Hufflepuff student in front of him, as unlikely as he was to become anything beyond some blue blood wizard who did ordinary things, as wizards went. "I believe you shall, then, Mr. Scamander. But after you have completed your essay and schoolwork, perhaps?"

Everyone had had a laugh over that, but the dream had stayed with Newt ever since. In every waking moment, he studied the legends and the current literature about the magical creatures and monsters while he was in the library with Leta while she studied rather large books on curses from the Restricted Section. At home, during the Christmas and summer holidays, he would spend time out-of-doors with his mother, helping her tend to her hippogriffs and the other magical creatures that found themselves on the Scamander magical estate. And of course, the non-magical creatures as well, such as the family dog and the cat familiar he had taken with him to Hogwarts.

Through a few observations, Newt had been able to piece together a few things— that animals of all varieties didn't care for eye-contact all that much, which was fine by him as for some reason humans of all varieties insisted on the uncomfortable norm. He also knew that animals that were not domesticated usually feared humans to some extent. How they expressed that fear was different, some through running and some through pure aggression.

The point was, when Newt had been expelled from school, he was not nearly as worried for his future as his parents and Theseus and even Leta were. He simply took what was supposed to be his future graduation present, his case, made a few clumsy modifications with the spells he knew, and took off to have the adventures that gave him all the information for his book.

He had fulfilled what he had dreamed of for so long, it did not seem real, even in pages and ink in front of him. He marveled over the first copy from the publisher, unable to fathom that _he_ of all wizards had written it, that his dreams had finally come true.

But with it came a creeping question— what now?

He had clung to this dream when he had lost everything at Hogwarts on that one terrible day after his sixth-year N.E.W.T.s. He had used it as a deflecting excuse to his parents, to everyone who had tried to prepare him for this day. But he had naively believed it would never come, maybe a part of him believed because of his occupation that he never would make it to this day and his notes would be published posthumously.

There were so many things he had not done yet. He had not visited the Kowalski Bakery in New York— although there was the matter of his international travel papers needing be cleared up. He had no idea what he was missing, but he felt its absence all the same.

There was the matter of the engagement in the paper— between Leta and Theseus of all people. He should probably do something about that. But he wasn't up for that quite yet, he decided. Too much society and complicated feelings involved.

His mind drifted to the witch he had met in New York with eyes that reminded him uncannily of a salamander. Perhaps he should write Tina a letter— and see about pursuing something new in his life.

Inspired, he drew his quill and a sheet of parchment and got to work.


End file.
